A Real Genius
by Marie S Zachary
Summary: When Ted's son is acting spoiled Mary has a talk with him
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: It doesn't take a Genius to realize I don't own MTM

* * *

"Ted," Mary said, "Let me talk with Davy. I think I can help"

"Really," Ted replied, "that would be wonderful"

"Davy," Mary said, "let's go get some lunch"

"Sure," Davy said, "how about at the museum"

It was only a few blocks away. Five minutes later they were sitting in the café at the museum.

"You know," Mary said, "that there is a definition for genius"

"Duh," said Davy, "I am a genius so I know that"

"But there's more to being a genius then showing off," Mary said, "and getting what you want all the time"

Davy looked at her.

"You see Davy, being a genius means being smart enough to know that there are times other people have to come first. Your mom promised that she would take your baby sister over to see your grandmother so she didn't have the time to take you to the museum today."

"But going to grandma's is so boring," Davy whined, "she lives in an old age home and there's nothing to do"

"How do you think she feels," Mary asked, "seeing you and your sister cheers her up so much"

"I… I guess I never thought of it like that," Davy admitted, "I've been thinking of what I want."

"That's normal," Mary said, "You're only a kid. But sometimes not getting what you want can actually be better then getting what you want"

"Really? How?"

"Well, when I was about your age, maybe a little older I wanted to go to this party. Billy Wyoming had asked me, he was this guy I REALLY liked a lot. But my father said ABSOLUTELY not. The party was unsupervised. He refused to let me go.

"I was **soooooooooooooooooooo **mad. I had a fit thinking he would change his mind. I was thinking he would realize how unfair he was being. It didn't work. He just calmly repeated that the answer was no and no amount of whining and complaining was going to make him change his mind.

"Well I was **really** mad but they day of the party someone came in and hurt a lot of people very badly. I lost three friends that day including Billy Wyoming. I was alive and safe though. I was so relieved that my dad didn't let me go even though I was mad at him at first."

Suddenly Davy saw what Mary was telling him.

"I want to be a real genius," he said softly


	2. Chapter 2

"As soon as Davy got back from lunch with Mary he went right to Ted and Georgette.

"Mom," he said, "Dad got a minute?"

"Sure," Georgette said.

"What's up kiddo," Ted asked.

"I'm sorry I was a bad person," Davey said, "I was thinking only about myself and-"

"Davey," Georgette said, "You are not a bad person. You're a kid. There is a difference between being a child and being a bad person"

"Will you guys ever love me again," Davey asked.

"Love you again? We never stopped loving you in the first place," Ted said, "Doing something wrong doesn't mean that we stop loving you"

"And in a way," Georgette said, "It's our fault too. We spoiled you."

"How?"

"We gave you the impression that you could do whatever you wanted WHENEVER you wanted," Georgette explained, "You're a kid and you didn't really understand how it works. From now on we're not going to do that anymore"

"Does that mean I can never get my way," Davey asked.

"No of course it doesn't," Ted said, "It means that you can get your way when you are being reasonable. But for example you can no longer stay up till 3 in the morning. You can no longer eat potato chips as breakfast"

"What about his allowance," Georgette asked Ted.

They had recently tripled his allowance because he wanted it to be tripled.

"He had that already," Ted said, "We're not going to take that away from him. But from now on you ask," he told Davey, "You don't demand. From now on you talk you don't talk down and from now on you go on family visits. Your grandmother misses you very much and she doesn't have much time left. AFTER the visit then we can do something you want to do and when the baby gets older you two will take turns deciding"

"Okay dad," Davey said.

"Just one more thing," Ted told Davey, "NOTHING is going to change my love for you or your mothers for that matter"


End file.
